Matt Schaub: Ndamukong Suh not ‘Houston Texan worthy’

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While Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh has been widely tabbed a dirty player, it’s rare for an NFL player to give voice to that perception.

After receiving a kick in the groin from Suh, Texans quarterback Matt Schaub was clearly displeased postgame.

And when he was asked on Texans Monday on Sports Radio 610 if he’d like Suh as a teammate, he curtly replied, “No.”

And why not?

“No, you don’t want a player like that,” Schaub said. “The stuff that he stands for and the type of player he is that’s not Houston Texan worthy. That’s not what we’re about as a football team, as individuals, collectively as a group. We’re not that type of person.”

The interview moved on to other topics from there, so we don’t yet have Schaub’s thoughts on what he deems Houston Texan worthy. But Schaub is absolutely right that the Texans place a high standard of character on their players. I wrote about that in Sunday’s paper.

Being a player of high character doesn’t mean someone who’s never made a mistake. The Texans have plenty of players who have made mistakes in their past, learned from them, didn’t do it again and have proven themselves to be good teammates and people.

Texans owner Bob McNair said three things are intolerable for the Texans: someone who abuses women, someone who is a habitual user of drugs and someone who rebels against authority.

Most interesting to me was his elaboration of the theory on drug use:

“The second thing is if there’s been substance abuse,” McNair told the Chronicle. “That can become a habit, and they might bring that habit with them. I’m not talking about someone who smoked marijuana. I’m talking about a persistent user of drugs. We take them off the list.”

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See the best photos from the Texans’ 34-31 overtime win over the Lions on Thanksgiving Day.